Should I Take Vitamins? Part 4 of 6
Dr. Blaine Chambers says this (verbatim, not edited):
“You are ringing my bell now. Your emphatic ‘No’ to multivitmins is quite harsh and certainly not good advice. Also, you assume all vitamins are ‘synthetic.’ My multivitamin by NutraPerfect is one designed by me that is a food grade natural vitamin with no synthetics. I agree that everyone should be getting nutrition from selected foods. Many folks simply won’t eat properly. Shall we let them be in poor health or let them die? Also, it is difficult to determine that the foods we eat (even organic) contain the essential vitamins, minerals and fatty acids the body requires. People may agree with the theory of getting more fiberous foods in the diet but in reality they don’t. Therefore a good food grade vitamin is in order. Incidentally, your comment of fish oil being “problematic” is dead wrong. As you complete your diligence in researching the benefits of plant oils vs marine oils, you will find the marine oils to make a better conversion in the body for the omega 3 fatty acids. Granted, a person should never try to live on vitamins alone but including a good food grade vitamin daily along with selected essential fiberous foods is a better suggestion. By all means, the pregnant lady that commented here should be supplementing daily for the health of her baby. Don’t write things just to get attention.”
My answer:
That’s an issue I have with the whole supplement industry–the emotional hyperbole of suggesting that we’re “letting people die” if we suggest supplements are not going to save us from disease and death.
First of all, I’m all for FREEDOM to eat vitamins if you want to. I’m sure lots of people will continue to put their faith in that and I’d be the first one to defend your right to make and market supplements. (I do not think multivitamins are killing people en masse–I think there’s a very small danger of overdose in some areas.)
Second, “food grade” means more stringent regulations of some kind? Dr. Chambers, please feel free to enlighten us here. I did not, in fact, assume all vitamins are synthetic, as you say. Some non-synthetic isolates are actually cheaper for the manufacturer than synthetics are. Most supplements are a combination of synthetic and otherwise, but even those that started as food are still many steps removed from food. I believe the further we get from the source, well, the further we get from health and real solutions.
Third and most important, if you study this issue, you become very disillusioned with the idea that taking a big handful of pills is going to bridge the nutrition gap and legitimize or excuse a lazy diet. So many macro studies point to results on multi-vitamin use that range from lackluster to dismal. These aren’t single studies, where the funding or the methods are suspect–they cover dozens or more. Where are macro studies showing that multivitamins are improving our health?
My biggest concern is that people say they cannot afford to eat right, and yet we spend well over a billion dollars a year eating vitamins. A secondary concern is that a smaller number of people eating as I do (and as I teach), 60-80% raw, mostly plant-based diet, you will overdose on some nutrients, as I have explained. I am teaching people who come to my site simple, quick ways to get nutritional needs met with FOOD.
One thing I don’t think I have ever explained in detail is that many years ago, I sold multivitamins. It was an expensive package that costs nearly $100/mo. I fell in love with it because along with the supplements, the company had obtained the licensing for a technology that read the carotenoid antioxidant levels in the skin in a matter of seconds. The scientists behind the machine published their work showing that carotenoid levels in the skin are a good indicator of overall micronutrient levels in the body.
I was quite enamored of the technology and I obtained one of the first machines. I traveled all over the U.S. scanning people with it, close to 10,000 people in gyms, doctor offices, nutrition stores, and conventions. The idea was that people get on the supplements and their antioxidant level, fully metabolized and showing up in the endpoints of the body (the skin), would increase.
The rest of this story, tomorrow.
There are times when specific vitamins can have a significant positive impact on health. I am seeing a naturopath for adrenal exhaustion and hypothyroid issues. One of the tests she ran was for my homocysteine levels and they were too high. She put me on a special form of Folate which lowered them. High homocysteine levels are associated with all of the bad things that come along with inflammation including an increased risk for heart attack. After being on Folapro for several months, my homocysteine levels came down to within the normal range. Additionally, my ferritin (iron storage) levels were too low. Most people (including endocrinologists) don’t realize that unless your ferritin levels are above 50 ng/mL (and doctors consider the “normal range for a female to be 12-150 ng/mL) your thyroid supplements will not work. I started at 20 ng/mL and it takes a LOT of supplementation and a LOT of time to raise ferritin levels – it took me a year to get to the point that thyroid meds would work for me. I take concentrace liquid trace mineral supplement, so there should be no reason for me to not be able to get my iron from food. People with any possibility of scandinavian heritage often cannot get enough omega 3s from plant sources and can only get them from fish sources. Omega 3 supplementation is an essential cornerstone of my supplement regimen and if I cut back I immediately begin to crave fats and over time become irritable and mentally foggy. I take other supplements for specific and measurable reasons. I also consume a quart of Green Smoothies per day. My point being that not all supplementation is unnecessary, but I fully agree with you that taking supplements in lieu of eating well is not a good idea.
I will be unsubscribing from this newsletter today. I do not sell vitamins or work in a health or nutrition industry, so I am not an expert which is why I rely on good quality information. While I think that the benefits of green smoothies and quality food eaten in the right state and right combinations are innumerable, I also believe that there is room for deficiency and the addition of quality supplements are beneficial if not necessary.
In my eyes, totally condemning supplements is not in the same as picking and choosing to back certain findings about such topics as soy for instance. Feeding ourselves with FOOD is basic and essential and good choices and habits are what fundamentally builds us, but supplements are just that… supplemental and I feel that totally turning your back to such a broad and valuable tool damages your credibility. Not that all needs cannot be met with food and natural herbs but in a realistic society they are not likely to always be available in clean concentrations that provide optimal health for all people and all situations.
“Angry”? I read you because you express your opinion(s). If you stop expressing your opinions you have “failed” your readers. Keep up the good work.
Best,
Connie
Hi Robyn,
I am very pleased at your article on multi vitamins. I have had such an amazing experience this year with my health and I have to share it with you.
Almost 10 years ago after my first child was born I became very ill. I had already been diagnosed with IBS 10 years prior to that and had my gallbladder removed as well. In 2001 I began to have diarrhea almost every day along with insomnia, severe mood swings, itching, nervousness, etc. I found a great naturopath who did a stool test and an adrenal stress test.
The results were terrible. I had 4 parasites, Celiac, soy, dairy and egg intolerance, poor pancreatic function and overgrowth of Candida. My adrenals were hyper off the charts! So, I cut out the allergens and began to heal very slowly.
I also found a nutritionist who specializes in Celiac and she taught me how to eat for my illness and put me on $220 a month worth of supplements that really kept me balanced. Eventually my thyroid also became very hypo and I added a natural thyroid supplement.
I stuck to this regimen for 8 years, along with a low phenol diet because high phenol foods gave me insomnia.
It worked like a charm, but i was so bored with my diet. I desperately wanted more variety. On the low phenol diet I could only eat golden delicious apples, iceberg lettuce, celery, sunbutter and cashews, along with rice and meat. Legumes were also a source of trouble for me.
In the spring of 2009 she (the nutritionist) gave me a book called “Food Enzymes: The Missing Link to Radiant Health”. She said the Lord told her I needed it but she didn’t know what for! After reading it my husband encouraged me to go forward with it even though it meant adding high phenol foods into my diet.
I didn’t know what to do, so I began researching the web for info on raw foods diet. The first thing I found was the raw family’s video on how to make a green smoothie. I was really afraid I would have some terrible reaction to it, but in fact I slept like a baby that night.
I continued to drink green smoothies every day, two blender fulls because I was nursing my third daughter at the time. I immediately felt something happening in my brain. It was like electricity was flowing through my head. I started adding more raw foods to my diet and was loving every minute with no reactions to the phenols.
After a year of this routine my body went into overdrive. One day I was fine then the next day I could no longer sleep and was not tired. I felt run down, but couldn’t rest. I went back to the naturopath and did a full blood panel and the adrenal stress test. Everything was normal, except I had low vitamin D. (It was early spring and may be due to not getting out in the winter time)
Anyhow, he didn’t suggest that I cut back on my supplements but gave me 5 more!!! Within 6 hours of taking his recommendations I was having migraines, heart palpitations, diarrhea, nervousness, irritability and insomnina that night! I knew my body was not happy with all the added supplements.
When i told him about my reactions he didn’t agree that it was the supplements. So I asked my nutritionist who also told me not to go off anything i was taking.
That’s when I began to really pray and do online research. I found that everything I was taking was also in the green smoothies. Over a four month period I kept researching what I was eating, the green smoothies and my supplements. God kept leading me to go off each thing one at a time. I was really afraid to go off anything, but my symptoms matched up with the research of what my body would do if I was taking too much.
I would go off one thing when it seemed the right time and feel better. After a few days I would go back on it at a lower dose and feel horrible for three whole days! I knew i was on the right track.
By August of this year I was off every supplement except enzymes and some flax seed oil and felt better than I ever have!
Then I cut back on the green smoothies because I stopped nursing my baby and thought I didn’t need as much. Within a month my adrenals and thyroid were sick again. After the doctor I went to confirmed my test results and symptoms I decided not to take the supplements because I was having such bad symptoms to them. I remembered in prayer one night that I had cut back on the green smoothies, so I decided to try drinking more.
I read your recommeded 32 oz. and started there. Within a week my thyroid and adrenals were back to normal!
I also recently tried drinking a teaspoon of aloe with my smoothies only to find insomnia creeping in and cramping. I’m not against aloe, I just think it’s the wrong thing for me and my body let me know.
I am living proof that green smoothies are chock full of all the nutrients we need along with some EFA’s. It’s been an exhausting journey, but well worth it. I no longer have to eat that boring diet and I am feeling more energy, and more joy than ever before!
Thank you for your dedication to helping others get well!
Katrina Nixon
I’ve got to agree with Robyn on Vitamin/Supplements. I’ve consumed a plethora of vitamins over the years if not daily.
Back in 1992 I came across a article in all places Fortune Magazine that stated that all vitamins/supplements were all the same. Basically, Vitamin “C” is Vitamin “C”! Organic, synthetic, generic, or “designer”, Vitamins are all the same!
I took that article in to a GNC, and we all know how cheap GNC is, and they of course refuted the article even to where they became very upset! I let them know that I was not there to debate the issue but to see if they had any documentation to challenge the Article’s claims. They said they did but did not have it at that time. They went on to give me a mind numbing discourse on how wonderful vitamins were and most of all, how incredible their GNC’s brands are!
I went back on 2 separate occasions to see if they could provide me any documentation on their claims and to refute the Fortune article and they never could produce it.
In my own research I’ve come to the same conclusion that Robyn has as to the need for vitamins/supplements. That we don’t need them! If you are eating raw foods, and yes having a fruit and a green smoothie daily, you don’t need supplements! Why may you ask, because the foods you are eating daily contain the same if not more of the vitamins, amino acids, etc that your body needs!!
Oh by the way, where do all these vitamin/supplement Manufacturer’s get the ingredients to put into their products? That’s right, from the same plants you eat daily! Why do you think it is called, “PLANT BASED DIET”!
My brother-in-law is now eating a PBT diet. Many of the people he works with will asked him, “if you don’t eat meat where do you get your source of protein?” His response to them is, ” the same place the Cow gets it! From the plants they eat!” He just tells them, ” I’m cutting out the middle cow!”
The same logic can be used here. Why pay large sums of money for vitamins/supplements when you don’t need to! Will it hurt you if you still take vitamins/supplements? No not according to my conclusions. It becomes a “wash” if you are eating and exercising properly. Does your heart, liver, kidneys, and other organs of your body know if you are taking designer vitamins or just something you bought from WalMart? I’ll go out on a limb and say NO!
If you want to do some good, buy your vitamins/supplements and send them to a 3rd world country who can put them to good use!
Here is a question for everyone to think about, does your car know if you are putting in Chevron or Shell gas into its gas tank? Of course not! I had a friend of mine who has been in the Oil industry for 25 years. When someone tells him how much better a certain brand of gas is over another he just starts laughing! He’ll then explain that 90% of all gas stations get their gas from just 2 refineries here in the Salt Lake area. They still don’t believe him.
The same can be said about the drug industry and even the vitamin/supplement industry. They will dispute, argue, rant and rave that their products are better! Just remember one thing, it comes down to $$$$ and that is it!!
Why would you spend $195 on a 3 month supply of vitamins/supplements when that same $195 will buy a heck of lot of fruits, veggies, and nuts to put into a green and fruit smoothie!
When the mighty dollar is involved , that just seems to cloud people’s judgment!
I would also question how many of the multivitamins and supplements out there are produced in China?
I think you both have valid points. If you can get everything you need from food then that is best. In reality it is difficult to assure that you are actually getting what you think you are and need simply from food. You don’t truly know what has influenced the food we eat due to environmental issues, improper storage in home refrigerators, nutritionally depleted soils and so on. Even local, organic growers can not control what is in the rain water that pours onto the crops. All this can degrade the nutritional value of the plant. I think a combination of supplement and healthy diet wouldn’t hurt anyone but help them. It definitely should be a supplement and not a substitute to a healthy lifestyle.
On the flip side I love green smoothies and prepare them for my family.
Right on Robyn,
Jack Lalane once stated something like this years ago, “If man made it, don’t eat it.” I think he is still alive.
Nancy
One more notable thing is that my 10 year old was also struggling with her thyroid. When she started drinking green smoothies every day she also had to go off the thyroid supplement because it was making her too tired. After she went off it she felt better.
She also struggles with hypoglycemia which the raw foods really help!
katrina
Hello Robyn,
I’m a female Kevin in California where we have abundant fresh fruit and veggies year round and I follow a 70% raw diet. I’ve noticed so many improvements from this way of eating, but still the weight isn’t coming off quickly (I’m surgically post-menopausal). I don’t use too many nuts as a result. Last night I watched David Wolfe’s movie “Food Matters”, wherein there was strong recommendation for the use of high doses of Vitamin C (based on Linus Pauling’s research) to treat Cancer and other degenerative diseases. Doesn’t that constitute vitamin use? Also, what are your thoughts on the superfood nutrients, which are very expensive. I choose to invest in them, but I doubt many people during these economically challenging time are paying the high prices to include these foods in their diets. Thanks for commenting!
Kevin, I have blogged on the superfoods in the past (this blog is searchable), and there’s a whole chapter on them in my book the Green Smoothies Diet.
You go girl. The vitamin industry is just that, an industry. They can no more be trusted than big pharma, to tell you the truth about their products. They just want to sell them and will do it any way they can. I’ve probably squandered thousands and thousands of dollars on vitamins. I believe now, I’d have been better off doing what you suggest and spending my money on good nutritious food and then not cooking the crap out of it
Thanks!
I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about this vitamin that you sold because I, too, jumped on board that ship several years ago.
Good point. As a female who has been sick and tired for 61 years, received 13 diagnosis (finally) in the past 12-15 years and done everything under the sun trying to find answers and get well, I’ve taken the best vitamins in the world (Nutrilite among them) as well as individual supplements for different symptoms. NOTHING helped. Now on a 75% raw/living foods diet and green smoothies I’m slowly improving. Enough so that I’m sticking with it. Still learning and praying about what is best for me but I know I’m on the right track.
I love it that you have some documentation behind what you are saying here Robyn
Hi Robyn,
As I expressed in my response to your no vitamin blog, I, too, do not believe in taking vitamins. owever, I do have a questions about replenishing nutrients after an illness.
My husband, Scott, and I took a cruise to Mexico over the Thanksgiving holiday. He picked up that “stomach bug” and had very bad diarhea for about 4 days but no vomiting. We managed to keep him hydrated and he is again following our normal GSG nutritional plan. But overall he is feeling very run down and weak. He is 68 and has always been healthy taking no oral medications but just a topical testosterone replacement.
I have been doubling up on the hemp protein powder to try to replenish his body from what he lost during his illness. We always drink lots of water. I just don’t know what else to do to rebuild his nutrients. Would this be a rare occasion a short duration of vitamins? If not, then what?
Margaret
Thank you for your response and the information you are providing. I totally agree with you. Though I am not on a raw food diet, I do chose to grow, prepare and eat a varied, organic and unprocessed diet and take no supplements for over 20 years. My family and I remain very healthy. Not much else to say!
I would love to eat 60 – 80% raw but because of my low digestive fire I have to have steamed, cooked food. When I try to eat raw, I have all kinds of problems. I also need to take enzymes. Not everyone can go raw and some people do need some type of assistance with supplementing their diet.
“Researchers exploring the notion that certain nutrients might protect against pancreatic cancer found that lean individuals who got most of these nutrients from food were protected against developing cancer. The study also suggests this protective effect does not hold true if the nutrients come from vitamin supplements.
In a study published in the June 1 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, investigators combined data from four large studies and found that people who were at or below normal body weight decreased their risk for developing pancreatic cancer if they took in high levels of vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and folate from food. The study determined that their risk was 81 percent, 73 percent, and 59 percent lower, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and folate respectively, compared with participants who did not eat as much of these nutrients or who weighed more. According to the researchers, that was the only statistically significant finding from the study, which is the largest yet to look at these nutrients and pancreatic cancer risk.
“All we can say is that a person who has reason to be concerned about their risk of developing this cancer, which is relatively rare but quite deadly, should maintain a normal weight and eat their fruit and vegetables,” said the study’s lead investigator, Eva Schernhammer, M.D., Dr.P.H., an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
The researchers also say that they uncovered another interesting trend that some people who received these nutrients from multivitamin pills had an increased risk of developing the disease. According to the researchers, individuals who said they used multivitamins, and whose blood showed traces of these nutrients, had a 139 percent increased relative risk of developing pancreatic cancer.
“This is a preliminary, but intriguing, finding because it suggests that something in the vitamins may fuel pancreatic cancer growth,Dr. Schernhammer said.”
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/67/11/5553.abstract
http://www.huliq.com/23341/dietary-vitamin-b6-b12-folate-to-decrease-pancreatic-cancer-risk
(sorry the text disappeared above)
Pat
Kathy I too have low digestive fire,but have discovered applecider vinegar,probiotics and fermented foods are changing this issue. I have become very wary of supplement taking and generally only premote the use of minerals and trace elements, because without these we are in big trouble and with poor digestion all the supplements in the world are not going to help. Sadly for me the most neglected area of health is the mental and emotional state of most people.
margaret Kalin,
try herbs such as astragalis and reshi mushroom or see a homeopathic physian. Probiotics are definiately my favourite product when the gut is not right. The humble green apple grated is also my family favourite for healing digestive issues. Spirulina also gives the body a natural boost of energy.
I think if we all ate better,we could leave out the supplements.
I think pure water is so healing and when animals want to heal themselves,they don’t eat food at all.
We keep putting things in our bodies to make them better but I believe
it is letting the bodies rest from food or supplement intake is the real healer and health builder.
Bravo Robyn-I like your spunk and honest attitude.
Like you said.You think everyone has the right to take supplements,you just don’t think they are necessary.
I have to agree
Blessing during the holidays and Happy New Year Girlfriend
Hi Robyn,
I apologize for not reading all of the information about vitamins. But I would like to get your thoughts of Juice Plus?
Have you heard of them and what do you think?
I do enjoy your newsletter. This is your story. Not everyone will or should agree, but I am glad you are sharing your testimonies about food.
You are a blessing to people!
Blessings,
Shanna
How do you know that the perfect balance of raw foods your eating were grown in perfectly balanced Soil?
Answer: You don’t. You don’t even know what the perfect balance of foods for your metabolism is.
I take a supplement that has all the ingredients known to science that the body needs, plus over 2,000 other ingredients that are naturally in the plants that the supplements consist of, that science has not yet identified.
Do you know if those unidentified ingredients are in your green smoothie? Do you know how much of them you need? Do you know what they do?
Every time science identifies a new vitamin or whatever that we need, the company I get my supplements from look at their list of things in their supplements and find the new ingredient is already there.
Im sure they are not perfect, but they are better than all the rest, and Im sure green smoothies are not perfect, because there is no perfect.
You must reasearch and find what works for you, without prejudice.
I agree with everything Robyn says about vitamins! Thanks for always giving us your opinion! That’s why will all come to her site, right??
As far as juice plus goes, it is not considered a vitamin. It is whole food in a capsule, just to help people fill the gaps from what the need to eat but aren’t. The maker of juice plus is a raw food, green smoothie, whole food advocate, who helped save his father from dying of cancer by giving his juiced, dried greens. Juice plus is not a megadoses vitamin, but food! Hope that helps.
Hi, I’m a green smoothie lover and I have been taking it slow and easy with the vitamins. Dr. Joel Fuhrman (author of Eat to Live) wrote up a critical piece on vitamins, including likelihood of overdose on vitamin A, if I remember correctly. But he also has some positive things to say about vitamins. And yes, he sells them. But hey, he advocates heavy-on-the-veg diet, with half your veggies raw. So I bought his Gentle Care multivitamin but I only take a half-dose. I also take JuicePlus whole food vitamins, and DHA derived from algae, and especially Vitamin D. I live up north and consequently don’t get much sun, so my levels were low last time I checked (before I took the vitamin D supplement). I was of good health before and continue to be so I cannot make personal health claims related to the vitamins. (Although the whole food “vitamin” JuicePlus changed my life–I stopped having colds every year.) But I did want to mention Dr. Fuhrman’s research, and the fact that Vitamin D supplements are necessary for those without access to the sun half the year! Anyway just wanted to give voice to another perspective…thanks for the great work, Robyn.